Social Media, the Positive

Some write apocalyptic warnings about social media, while others fail to think of its impact. But this piece, by Zeynep Tufekci, shows that social media have positive impacts as well.

What are two positives for you because of social media?

That might not have been apparent to those who picked up their Sunday New York Times to find Sherry Turkle’s latest essay arguing that social media are driving us apart. If anything, social media is a counterweight to the ongoing devaluation of human lives. Social media’s rapid rise is a loud, desperate, emerging attempt by people everywhere to connect with *each other* in the face of all the obstacles that modernity imposes on our lives: suburbanization that isolates us from each other, long working-hours and commutes that are required to make ends meet, the global migration that scatters families across the globe, the military-industrial-consumption machine that drives so many key decisions, and, last but not least, the television — the ultimate alienation machine — which remains the dominant form of media. (For most people, the choice is not leisurely walks on Cape Cod versus social media. It’s television versus social media).

As a social media researcher and a user, every time I read one of these “let’s panic” articles about social media (and there are many), I want to shout: Look at TV! Look at commutes! Look at suburbs! Look at long work hours! That is, essentially, my response to Stephen Marche’s “Facebook Is Making Us Lonely,” which ran in The Atlantic magazine.

And then, please, look at the extensive amount of data that show that social-media users are having more conversations with people — online and off!…

Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.

phil_style

Social media is so last year. But the “buzz” hangover still generates a lot of commentary.

“z.electric” is, undoubtedly, the next craze, which everyone will be writing about within 12 months. 😉

http://www.thinveil.net Brandon Vogt

Wrote a whole book on this exact issue:

“The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet”

I’ll definitely second the notion that social media makes me more social (and I’m not counting the time interfacing with the media itself–which I’d argue it valuably social, if incomplete, in its own right). It amazes me how much more easily I can bump into the friend also perusing books at the library or the former teacher sipping tea two storefronts down from my deli by screening for their whereabouts using geo-tools. Every trip out of town adds a pit-stop to reconnect with an old face, and unscheduled nights are filled with responses to “Anyone have an interest in catching move ______ tonight?” Sure, there are myriad old-fashioned ways to stay in touch with and develop deeper relationships with good friends, but I enjoy how social media gives me ample excuse to test whether I might be able to expand that inner circle a few inches. Not that FB encounters borne of half-intentionality have to spawn a great friendship to be highly valuable.

http://radref.blogspot.co.uk/ Phil Wood

I’m no Facebook zealot or a believer in the Foursquare horsemen of the apocalypse, but in the main I use Social Media as a necessity. Last year I gave up my online existence entirely for months following a nervous breakdown that had to do, in part, with social network overload. There is only so much 24 hour immediacy and superfluous information that I can take. I accept that for many who make extensive use of Social Networks there is a knock-on benefit for face to face interaction. As an introvert I strongly suspect though, that the results would be different for an introvert sample. I certainly do meet people I talk to online. A significant part of my work involves network, whether face to face or virtual.

So, I’m sitting on the fence. I am willing to put up with Social Networking because it has a terrific power of interconnection. At the same time I find all online communication ‘disembodied’. I would definitely argue that the accent should fall on face to face community, supplemented by Social Networking. I don’t agree that the choice isn’t Cape Cod vs Social Networking. There is a real sense in which we are becoming ever more insulated from the natural world. At the moment we’re involved in the development of ‘Walking Church’ (http://www.mennoworld.org/2012/4/16/london-congregation-takes-worship-outside/). Definitely face to face, boots on the ground stuff, but we get the word out via Social Networking. That feels like the right way round.

Margaret

Thanks for posting on the positive side of social media–we hear so much about the negative it’s refreshing to hear a new perspective!

Jesse

I gave up Twitter and blogging over a year ago because I realized I was damaging my own soul. Fishing for attention in the sea of other, more famous, Christians. It became the means to a very unhealthy end and I hated who I was becoming. It’s not bad in itself, I don’t think, but I do wonder how this kind of interaction is feeding our egos and what the long-term effect will be.

I kept Facebook so I could continue to connect with and keep up with people I actually know. Only recently have I thought about rejoining Twitter. I used to be “up to speed” on a lot that I am now not. Things I care about related to ministry and such.

I’m still mulling it over, wondering whether I’ve grown past my own selfish ambition enough to get my tweet on without destroying my own soul.

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Read Scot’s Books

The real Mary was an unwed, pregnant teenage girl in first century Palestine. She was a woman of courage, humility, spirit, and resolve, and her response to the angel Gabriel shifted the tectonic plates of history.

Join popular Biblical scholar Scot McKnight as he explores the contours of Maryâ€™s life, from the moment she learned of God's plan for the Messiah, to the culmination of Christ's ministry on earth. McKnight dismantles the myths and also challenges our prejudices. He introduces us to a woman who is a model for faith, and who points us to her son.

What is the 'Christian life' all about? Studying the Bible, attending church, cultivating a prayer life, witnessing to others---those are all good. But is that really what Jesus has in mind? The answer, says Scot McKnight in One.Life, lies in Jesus' words, 'Follow me.'

What does it look like to follow Jesus, and how will doing so change the way we live our life---our love.life, our justice.life, our peace.life, our community.life, our sex.life---everything about our life.

This book examines conversion stories as told by people who have actually undergone a conversion experience, including experiences of apostasy. The stories reveal that there is not just one "conversion story." Scot McKnight and Hauna Ondrey show that "conversion theory" helps explain why some people walk away from one religion, often to another, very different religion. The book confirms the usefulness--particularly for pastors, rabbis, and priests, and university and college teachers--of applying conversion theory to specific groups.

Parakeets make delightful pets. We cage them or clip their wings to keep them where we want them. Scot McKnight contends that many, conservatives and liberals alike, attempt the same thing with the Bible. We all try to tame it.

McKnight's The Blue Parakeet has emerged at the perfect time to cool the flames of a world on fire with contention and controversy. It calls Christians to a way to read the Bible that leads beyond old debates and denominational battles. It calls Christians to stop taming the Bible and to let it speak anew for a new generation.

The gravity point of a life before God is that his followers are to love God and to love others with everything they've got. Scot McKnight now works out the "Jesus Creed" for high school and college students, seeking to show how it makes sense, giving shape to the moral lives of young adults. The Jesus Creed for Students is practical, filled with stories, and backed up and checked by youth pastors Chris Folmsbee and Syler Thomas.

"When an expert in the law asked Jesus for the greatest commandment, Jesus responded with the Shema, the ancient Jewish creed that commands Israel to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength. But the next part of Jesus' answer would change the course of history.

Jesus amended the Shema, giving his followers a new creed for life: to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, but also to love others as themselves. Discover how the Jesus Creed of love for God and others can transform your life.

"Scot McKnight stirs the treasures of our Lord's life in an engaging fashion. He did so with The Jesus Creed, and does so again with 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed. Make sure this new guide for living is on your shelf." --Max Lucado

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And...love your neighbor as yourself."

Scot McKnight has come to call this vital teaching of our Lord the Jesus Creed. He recites it throughout the day every day and challenges you to do the same. You may find that, if you do, you will learn to love God more creatively and passionately, and find new ways to love those around you.

What was spiritual formation like during the time of Jesus? As Scot McKnight points out, the early Christians didn't sing in the choir or go to weekly Bible studies, and yet they matured inwardly in relationship with God as well as outwardly in their relationships with each other. How did this happen?

In The Jesus Creed DVD, explore with Scot how the great Shema of the Old Testament was transformed by our Lord into the focal point for spiritual maturity. According to the Jesus Creed (found in Mark 12:29-31), loving God and loving others are the greatest commandments.

Is the practice of faith centered solely on the spirit? Is the body an enemy, or can it actually play a role in our pursuit of God? In this installation of the Ancient Practices Series, Dr. Scot McKnight reconnects the spiritual and the physical through the discipline of fasting.

The act of fasting, he says, should not be focused on results or used as a manipulative tool. It is a practice to be used in response to sacred moments, just as it has in the lives of God's people throughout history. McKnight gives us scriptural accounts of fasting, along with practical wisdom on benefits and pitfalls, when we should fast, and what happens to our bodies as a result.

McKnight discusses the value of the church's atonement metaphors, asserting that the theory of atonement fundamentally shapes the life of the Christian and of the church. This book, the first volume in the Living Theology series, contends that while Christ calls humanity into community that reflects God's love, that community then has the responsibility to offer God's love to others through such missional practices of justice and fellowship.

Scot McKnight, best-selling author of The Jesus Creed, invites readers to get closer to the heart of Jesus' message by discovering the ancient rhythms of daily prayer at the heart of the early church. "This is the old path of praying as Jesus prayed," McKnight explains, "and in that path, we learn to pray along with the entire Church and not just by ourselves as individuals."

Praying with the Church is written for all Christians who desire to know more about the ancient devotional traditions of the Christian faith, and to become involved in their renaissance today.

In the candid and lucid style that has made McKnight's The Jesus Creed so appealing to thousands of pastors, lay leaders, and everyday people who are searching for a more authentic faith, he encourages all Christians to recognize the simple, yet potentially transforming truth of the gospel message: God seeks to restore us to wholeness not only to make us better individuals, but to form a community of Jesus, a society in which humans strive to be in union with God and in communion with others.